HWA Poetry Showcase, Vol 8: TOC Announcement

Good Morning, Poets and Poetry Lovers!

Today in the Madhouse, I'm thrilled to share with you the TOC and cover reveal for the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. 8. We had a ton of wonderfully dark and delicious submissions this year--close to 200!--which made the competition incredibly intense, so I want to take a moment to thank all of you who submitted to the anthology; it was, and remains, a true honor to read your work. I also want to send out a special thanks to Sara Tantlinger and Angela Yuriko Smith for all their hard work and insight as judges--as always, it was wonderful working with you ladies!--and to Robert Payne Cabeen, who not only provided us with a beautiful poem but who provided the cover art for the showcase this year. Bob's artwork is always absolutely stunning and I'm thrilled to showcase his talents in this respect, too.

I also wanted to highlight our top three poets this year, whose work will be featured in a separate spotlight courtesy of the HWA Poetry Blog: Ingrid L. Taylor, Lee Murray, and Brenda S. Tolian. Congratulations!

This year is particularly special for me as it will be my last year editing the showcase. After four wonderful, poetry-filled years, I am thankful to the HWA for trusting me with this project, to John Palisano for supporting and encouraging me, and to David E. Cowen for initially recommending me for this position. It has been a journey and a delight, and I've learned so much about the market, the genre, and our fantastic community along the way. Thank you for the scares, the nightmares, and the verses, folks. I hope to return the favor someday (insert evil laugh here).

Below is the TOC (although the order will be slightly adjusted upon print):

Artist/Poet Showcase:

• Robert Payne Cabeen-- "Run Away"

Crystal Lake Poetry Contest Winner:

• E.F. Schraeder-- "Cherry Blossoms (On Mourning a Distant Mother)"

Showcase TOC:

1. Bright Tapestry by Carina Bissett
2. On the Altar of a Beseeching Bell, Woebegone with Captivity by Saba Syed Razvi
3. Necrow by Querus Abuttu
4. Afterlife by Mercedes M. Yardley
5. Girls Who Create Monsters by Jeannine Hall Gailey
6. Lucky Charm by Cynthia Pelayo
7. Revelation 9:15 by Benicio Isandro
8. orchid moon by Lee Murray
9. Note for My Sisters When I Am Gone by Patricia Lillie
10. All of the Ghosts Are Gone by Chad Helder
11. What Monster is This by Ingrid L. Taylor
12. Low Tide by Sarah Read
13. ritual for reuniting with my favorite demon by Kailey Tedesco
14. Sugar by Jacqueline West
15. Visiting Hours by Vince A. Liaguno
16. On Darkest Night of Faerie Bright by Sumiko Saulson
17. A Woman's Weapon by KC Grifant
18. Epiales by Caitlin Marceau
19. the umami of blood by Michael Arnzen
20. Ferrywoman of Geoje-do by Patricia Flaherty Pagan
21. Our Nightly Voyage by Amy Langevin
22. The Serpents' Tale by Lisa Morton
23. We Are Born of Blade and Blood by Naching T. Kassa
24. Buried by Lindy Ryan
25. Seedling by Beverly Lee
26. Dead as Brains by Lorna D. Keach
27. Shadecrest Palisades by Manny Blacksher
28. Skinwalker Moon by Brenda S. Tolian
29. The Song of the Wandering Zombie by Graham Masterton
30. Teeth by Brad Christy
31. The Silence of God by Jamal Hodge
32. A Garden of Flesh by Deborah L. Davitt
33. Moon by Corrine De Winter
34. Mine Offenses by R.J. Joseph
35. Restless Spiritualists by Amanda Hard
36. Night Out at the Old Circus by Ian Hunter
37. Carefully Tended Horrors and Gardens by Trisha J. Wooldridge
38. Carrie by Emma J. Gibbon
39. Vargas Visits the Monastery (a Vampyre speech) by Patricia Gomes
40. Long Forgotten by EV Knight
41. Win, Lose by Donna Lynch
42. The Madness of Monsters by Sheldon Woodbury
43. Your Eyes, Umber Dark, A Disease by Lonni Nadler
44. Death Mask by Stephanie Ellis
45. The To-Do List that Never Ends by Kerri-Leigh Grady
46. To Necrophilia by Katherine Kerestman
47. There Is No Difference Between an Eye and a Mouth by Donyae Coles
48. How Date Nights Bring You Ever Closer: A Forbidden Haibun by Terrie Leigh Relf
49. Waning Moon by Alicia Hilton
50. In a Place Somewhere Inside by Ronald J. Murray

July '21 Madhouse Recap

Hello friends and fiends—

I think I cursed myself by saying that June was a slow month because July was anything but! In addition to being noticeably pregnant now (and obsessively cleaning and preparing my house for the little one this winter), I’ve been juggling a lot of projects, writing deadlines, and getting ready for my upcoming courses this fall—not to mention I’m currently teaching a graduate course and taking a psychology course at Point Park.

On the writing/editing front, there’s a lot of exciting things happening:

• I’m moving forward with getting the 8th volume of the HWA Poetry Showcase organized and edited now. I’ll be making a TOC announcement this month, so please be sure to keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, if you want to check out the earlier versions of the anthology, you can do so here.
• My poem “The Returned” was published in Nightmare Magazine. You can read it here.
• Jezzy Wolfe’s poetry collection Monstrum Poetica is available for preorder with Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Lucy Snyder’s forthcoming poetry collection Exposed Nerves just had its cover reveal, which you can view here. Keep a close eye out for a preorder announcement soon.
• Point Park interviewed me about my Elgin award nomination for The Apocalyptic Mannequin and wrote up a lovely article for their website. You can read it here.

The end of my first trimester and the beginning of my second zapped my energy so I watched a lot of movies and tv shows:

• I loved the Fear Street Trilogy. What an absolute blast! I was fortunate to win advance screenings of the films, so I was pretty much on cloud 13 (that’s the cloud the horror fans hang out on). This has a lot of rewatch potential in my eyes and I’m sure I’ll be hanging out in Shadyside again this fall.
• Stoker – a great psychological flick.
• Son – this was dark and intense, and I really enjoyed it
• Two horror shorts: White Girl and Separation—If you’re a fan of Cronenberg, give Separation a go!
• American Horror Stories—so far, I liked episodes 1 and 2, but 3 and 4 fell flat for me.
• Mare of Easttown – truly amazing. I wish I would have watched this sooner with everyone else.
• Black Widow—Loved this, too. The commentary on human trafficking coupled with the pro-choice undertones and female awakening/uprising was really inspiring. I was happy to see Marvel go there.  
• Loki—Now, I love Loki and I enjoyed the series, but I’m jaded about this. Oh well.

I’m currently on an audiobook kick, so I haven’t been listening to as many podcasts lately, but I managed to squeeze in a few episodes this month that I really enjoyed:

• Faculty of horror, Fack Flash: Fear Street 1994
• Books in the Freezer Podcast: Serial Killer Horror
• Lore Episode57: Quarantine
• LoreEpisode 60: If Walls Could Talk

When it comes to what I’ve been reading:

• Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
• Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson
• Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
• Shirley: A Novel by Susan Scarf Merrell
• The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
• Here, the World Entire by Anwen Kya Hayward

I also managed to sneak in a couple short stories by Amparo Davila and I’m very much enjoying her work! If you haven’t checked out her collection The Houseguest and Other Stories, be sure to add it to your TBR list.

August is going to be intense as I head back to school, ease into a new routine, and type “The End” on a few lingering projects. With that said, I was happy that I got to go see a movie in theatres last month (I didn’t realize quite how much I really missed doing that), and Dennis and I went to a fantastic horror-themed drag show that was truly amazing and something I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Until next time, I’m hoping that everyone stays safe and healthy and sane, and I really hope we can all see each other soon, so please take care of yourselves and your families and know that Halloween is only 91 days away!

Stay spooky,

Stephanie